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April 16, 2008
Jamalco announces Mentorship Programme for Vere Technical
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Jamalco will begin a mentorship programme for students at Vere Technical High school, Clarendon in the 2008/09 academic year. The bauxite/ alumina company’s Corporate Services and Government Affairs Manager Leo Lambert announced the plan on Thursday, April 10 during a ceremony to hand over a new guardhouse to the school.
The facility was built as a joint effort between the Refinery Community Council, Jamalco and local community contractors after students destroyed the old structure early in 2007 in reaction to the injury of several students by a security guard on duty who had discharged his firearm.
Mr. Lambert said that the mentorship programme would pair Jamalco’s managers with students the school’s administration identify as “experiencing some challenges and who needed guidance and support”. He said the Jamalco mentors would help the students not only to be the best in their academic performance, but, “be the best in terms of discipline and in extra-curricular activities.”
The Corporate Services Manager noted that the new guard house stood as a reminder of “something that went wrong that should never happen again. You, the young men and women of Vere Technical must ensure it never happens again,” he added.
He said that the Jamalco team believes that no one is beyond redemption, and therefore had decided to institute the mentorship programme.
Co-chair of the Refinery Community Council, Mrs. Lorine Metcalfe-Cousins and Council member Mrs. Jeanette Brown commended local community contractors and residents for the role they played in the project, noting that much of the work on the structure was done on Labour Day in May 2007.
Community contractors PCL Limited, Cousins Construction, CariPro, Street Link Limited, Heroes Construction., K&D Limited, and Peter Williams Limited collaborated with Jamalco and its alliance partner Kier-CCC to complete the project at a cost of $500,000. The Member of Parliament Hon. Rudyard Spencer and Councilor for the division Scean Barnswell also assisted.
Vere Principal Dr. Henritta Stewart, who chaired the brief ceremony, thanked the community businesses, the community council and Jamalco for spearheading the project and encouraged the students to care for their school. “The school belongs to you, your community, your parents and to generations to come and not to the teachers or the government, we are the government,” she said.
Mrs. Metcalfe-Cousins, Jamalco Community Relations Officer Phillip Biggs, along with Vere Technical’s Head Boy Andre Henry and Head Girl Kimani Seymour unveiled a plaque marking the contribution of the organizations involved in the construction of the facility.
Dr. Stewart and Mr. Lambert assisted by the Head Boy and Head Girl cut the ribbon to symbolically open the guard house. The concrete facility has a comfortable main office area with a shower and lavatory.
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